Buildup to #JallianwalaBagh massacre
Michael O'Dwyer (Punjab Governor) to Gen Dyer, after the massacre
#JallianwalaBagh
Dwyer was dispatched to his maker to seek his approval by Udham Singh Shaheed in 1940.
English translation of Dyer's Urdu statement directed at local residents of Amritsar on the afternoon of 14 April 1919:
Quote, "You people know well that I am a Sepoy and soldier. Do you want war or peace? If you wish for a war, the ..
.. Government is prepared for it, and if you want peace, then obey my orders and open all your shops; else I will shoot. For me the battlefield of France or Amritsar is the same. I am a military man and I will go straight.
Neither shall I move to the right nor to the left. Speak up, if you want war? In case there is to be peace, my order is to open all shops at once. You people talk against the Government and persons educated in Germany and Bengal talk sedition.
I shall report all these. Obey my orders. I do not wish to have anything else. I have served in the military for over 30 years. I understand the Indian Sepoy and Sikh people very well.
You will have to obey my orders and observe peace.
Otherwise the shops will be opened by force and Rifles. You will have to report to me of the Badmash. I will shoot them. Obey my orders and open shops. Speak up if you want war.
You have committed a bad act in killing the English. The revenge will be taken upon you and upon your children.'
Unquote
The one person at the forefront of the 'Help Dyer' campaign was the celebrated poet Rudyard Kipling.
Kipling claimed Dyer was "the man who saved India", started a benefit fund which raised over 26,000 pounds sterling, including 50 pounds contributed by Kipling himself and rest by other citizens who endorsed the massacre.
Ironically, it might have been avoided had the Europeans stayed on in fcuking Europe, no?
#JustAsking
#JallianwalaBagh
One of my personal favourites as far as tributes to Udham Singh go.
Too bad, much of it cannot be translated from Punjabi without losing its flavour.
Dyer had come fully prepared for murdering not just 100s, but 1000s.
The toll would have atleast thrice as much had the car mounted machine guns that he was bringing, not gotten stuck in narrow lanes